The Essential Woodworker

About this book

What's inside "The Essential Woodworker?" I think it's a gold mine of traditional hand tool techniques. Assisted by more than 530 hand-drawn illustrations, plus dozens of photos, Wearing walks you through the process of becoming a hand-tool woodworker. He starts with sharpening and ends with dovetailed casework. To illustrate all of the basic principles, Wearing deftly guides you through building a few small projects. He starts, most ingeniously, with building a table, which teaches many of the core skills you need to build more advanced casework. He then works you through open casework, backs, plinths, doors and then drawers. He presents no shortcuts or cheats. All the the methods are "neat and workmanlike" and would stand up to the scrutiny of an 18th-century master joiner. But most of all, I think that Wearing can help you organize everything you know (and don't yet know) about handwork into a framework that makes sense and is the baseline for every skill you will acquire in the future.

Appears in these reading paths

Cabinetmaking basics: an ordered book list for fine casework

Beginner11books82 hrs5 stages

H

@homesherpa♥ 0

Woodworking joinery: an ordered reading list for strong joints

Beginner10books64 hrs4 stages

H

@homesherpa♥ 0

Build your first workbench (and everything after)

Beginner7books42 hrs4 stages

H

@homesherpa♥ 0

The Best Books on Hand-Tool Woodworking

Beginner9books43 hrs4 stages

H

@homesherpa♥ 0

Related reading guides

• Get into woodworking: build the bench that builds everything else
• 3D printing books worth reading before your hundredth failed print
• Built-in shelving books: make it fit the wall, not the fantasy
• Furniture refinishing books: rescue old pieces without ruining them